


three words, eight letters

by windfalling



Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: F/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-15
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-02 10:42:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6563095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windfalling/pseuds/windfalling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“You’re awake,” she says, her voice sluggish with sleep. He’s facing her, propped up on his elbow, and she wonders how long he’s just been lying like that, staring at her, watching her breathe.</i>
</p><p>A collection of prompt fills with the theme, <i>the way you said "I love you."</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. looking to the future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2: with a hoarse voice, under the blankets

 

Liz wakes knowing that something isn’t right. She’s learned to sleep lightly after weeks of constant movement from one safe house to another, and the smallest thing—a door creaking, the first syllable of her name—will rouse her. Her eyes open to the darkness of the room, struggling to adjust. It’s little more than a feeling, but it isn’t until she turns that she realizes what it is.

“You’re awake,” she says, her voice sluggish with sleep. He’s facing her, propped up on his elbow, and she wonders how long he’s just been lying like that, staring at her, watching her breathe.

When he doesn’t answer, she reaches to touch his face. “Red?”

Her fingers blindly fumble and find his nose first, brushing his lips, moving to cup his cheek. The moment she touches him, he lets out a shuddering breath. His hand wraps around hers, and he turns his head to press a kiss to her palm. “Lizzy,” he says, his voice breaking, a sound that shakes her to the core.

She moves to sit up, but before she can say another word, his mouth is on hers. There is something desperate in the way that he kisses her, and his hand slides down to rest at the hollow of her throat, fingers resting lightly against her pulse. “I love you,” he breathes against her mouth, then kisses her again, so gently that her heart aches. He leans his forehead against hers, afterward, and she holds him for a long moment.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asks softly.

So quietly that she strains to hear, he says, “You were dead. I watched you die. And I couldn’t…”

“It was just a nightmare,” she murmurs, stroking his cheek. “It wasn’t real. I’m here. I’m okay.” She presses her lips to his forehead, his cheek, his mouth, whispering _I love you_ in between kisses, over and over again, until the trembling in his body finally comes to a stop.

“Go back to sleep,” she says gently.

“Lizzy—”

“I’ll be here when you wake,” she says, “I promise.”

She curls up against him, his arm holding her close. Her hand rests over his heart. She closes her eyes and dreams not of death, but of the future unfolding before them, hopeful and bright.

 


	2. the cassandra curse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the prompt: broken, as you clutch the sleeve of my jacket and beg me not to leave. or: time travel au!

Cooper’s voice drifts through her ears, hearing the sounds but not the words, registering only the urgency in them.

The world is on the brink of war, the world is going to end—Liz knows this, she knows, but she is only one person and there is only so much she can do, and her world has already ended, it ended yesterday with fifteen missed calls and Aram telling her, _I’m sorry, Liz, I’m so sorry—_

 

 

-

 

 

She pushes past Dembe and walks briskly through the house. The first time, she had flung open all the doors, shouting his name, a wild panic in her veins. Now, she knows where to go.

Red looks up in surprise when she opens the door, his fingers stilling on buttons of his shirt. “I wasn’t expecting to see—” he begins, but he falters when he looks at her. His head tilts, brow furrowing with concern, and he takes all of one step before she crosses the space between them, her fingers curling into his shirt as she slants her mouth over his.

It’s familiar, the way he moves reflexively to hold her, the way he kisses her, the way he cups her face and strokes her cheek. This time is no less overwhelming than the first, and being able to see him, to touch him—every cell in her body still misses him even now, and she does not know what to do.

Red pulls away, frowning slightly. His hand is still cupping her face, and he searches her eyes. “Lizzy—”

“I love you,” she breathes, because she never said it enough. “I missed you,” she says, too, her voice breaking, and she promised herself this time would be better, but she can’t help it. He’s here, _alive_ , in front of her.

Red tugs her toward the bed to sit, looking alarmed. “What’s wrong?” he says, voice low. His eyes flicker to her jaw, lingering. There’s a faint pink line near her ear, a newly healed wound crossing her jaw, and she realizes that she’d forgotten to cover it up. She moves her hair out from behind her ear, and his attention shifts. “Did something happen?”

“Don’t go,” she says.

He blinks. “What?”

“I know about your meeting tomorrow.”

He pauses. “Is that what this is about?”

“They won’t hold up their end. And you won’t—” She shuts her eyes again, takes a steadying breath. “You won’t make it back.”

His face softens. “I’ll have my team with me, Lizzy. Dembe will be there, so will Baz and his men.”

_Only Dembe made it out, but he’s in critical condition. I’m sorry, Liz, I’m so sorry—_

She shakes her head, moving away from him. “No, Red, listen—it’s too dangerous, they’ll kill you,” she says, her voice catching on _kill_. She won’t get to him, and she does not know if she’ll ever find the right things to say.

“I’ve been in more danger than this,” he reminds her gently, and she’s heard him say this before. “It’s a risk I have to take, Lizzy, if I don’t—”

She stands abruptly, her arms folding and unfolding as she paces anxiously in front of him. “You don’t understand, it’s not just a risk, it’s—” _the future_ , she thinks, where he was gone and the world erupted and here she is, trying to save it, trying to save _him_.

He catches one of her hands, twining their fingers together. He will not stay, no matter what she says. Not at this point in time.

“I’ll come back,” he says, “I pro—”

“Don’t,” she says, because it is a promise he will not be able to keep, and she looks to the corner of the room, blinking rapidly against her blurring vision. Taking a steadying breath, she looks back at him and presses one last kiss to his mouth. Last time, she had told him all the things she should have said before, what her last words to him should have been. She can’t remember it now, what she had said before all of this. She remembers only the regret.

Now, she tells him she loves him before she leaves, her mind already looking to the past.

  

 

-

 

 

In a different life, Red had spoken of lines in the sand, of a devotion that would raze the earth in its wake. _Someone who’s willing to burn the world down to protect the one person they care about_ , _that’s a man I understand,_ he’d said, and she hadn’t been able to fathom that kind of intensity, hadn’t been able to grasp it at all.

She thinks she understands it now.


End file.
